1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to protective covers for the exterior of automobiles and more specifically, to a vehicle protective cover which is especially designed to protect the side surfaces of automobiles and which is also designed to be resistant to theft.
2. Prior Art
The general concept of utilizing an exterior surface protective cover to present damage to an automobile, particularly when it is parked next to other vehicles and subject to damage when the doors of the adjacent vehicles are opened carelessly, is old in the art. By way of example, U.S. Pat. No. 1,559,458 to Rizianu issued in 1925 discloses an automobile cover which virtually surrounds the entire vehicle. Other patents of a more pertinent nature include U.S. Pat. No. 4,041,999 to Miller and U.S. Pat. No. 4,531,560 to Balanky. Other patents of a more general interest include U.S. Pat. No. 2,119,072 to Cohen; U.S. Pat. No. 2,803,282 to Wilcox; U.S. Pat. No. 3,298,712 to Greenstadt and U.S. Pat. No. 4,219,218 to Waldon. Although car covers serve many purposes including keeping the car clean, for example, when it is parked outdoors overnight, the present invention is directed to those particular car covers which are designed to protect the exterior of the vehicle, particularly the sides thereof, from inadvertent damage which might otherwise occur when the car is parked adjacent other vehicles such as in a parallel vehicle parking lot wherein those opening the doors of adjacent vehicles might inadvertently cause the door of their vehicle to come in contact with the door of the user's vehicle and thereby damage the paint or dent the wall of the exterior surface or otherwise damage the vehicle. Although there have been many covers disclosed in the prior art which accomplish this purpose, none known to the applicant herein has done so in a configuration designed to be theft-resistant. By way of example, there have been prior art side car covers which utilize magnetic materials to permit attachment of a thick damage-resistant material to the side doors of vehicles by simply adhering magnetically to the vehicle metal exterior. In addition, there has been disclosure in the prior art of a variety of covers which utilize straps to adhere to the exterior of the vehicle by attachment to exterior portions of the vehicle such as the bottom of the car frame and the top of the door frame. In all cases however, these prior art car covers are readily removed without requiring access to the vehicle interior such as by requiring the doors be unlocked and opened. Therefore, there has been a long-felt need for a protective cover for the side exterior of vehicles which in addition to affording the aforementioned protection from adjacent vehicles when the car is parked, are also not readily removable by anyone having access to the exterior of the vehicle alone.